1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device, an image processing method, a recording medium having an image processing program recorded therein, and a program product for image processing, and more particularly, to an image processing device, an image processing method, a recording medium having an image processing program recorded therein and a program product, which process an image using information on a light source corresponding to lighting used at shooting (image pick-up).
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, in the sales style of products, such a business style has been widespread that information such as a picture image of a product (hereinafter referred to as product information) is distributed or broadcast by on-line shopping via a communication network or by television shopping using a television broadcasting (together, hereinafter merely referred to as on-line shopping), and is displayed on a display device on a consumer side, without a product actually being displayed or exhibited in a store and the like, or in parallel with such a conventional sales style.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-21304 describes a system for providing product information such as a picture, a photo, an image or the like through on-line shopping.
In such a business style, a picture image, shot by a transmitting end (a dealer side) which is to provide product information, is directly distributed and broadcast without a special process such as color correction performed thereon. Thus, on a receiving end that receives the picture (a consumer side), the color of an actual product may not agree with the color image of the product that the consumer obtained from the picture, since illumination light used at shooting of the product is not the same as that in an environment in which the consumer uses the product.
In the art of personal computers, a technology of color control for accurately displaying a color of an image on a monitor has been established pursuant to the sRGB standard specified by Commission International de Eclairage. As this standard is directed to faithfully display the color of an image, such a technology pursuant to the standard would not allow the actual color of a product to agree with the color image of the product that a consumer obtains from a picture.
In on-line shopping or the like, color is a crucial factor for motivating the consumer to purchase a product such as clothes, lipsticks or the like, and thus a consumer has a desire to accurately learn what chroma the product presents in an environment in which the product is actually used. For example, the consumer desires to confirm in advance what chroma a dress that he/she is to purchase will present under lighting in a party place. However, the publication described above merely describes a technology for providing the consumer side with product information by a picture, a photo, an image and the like, but there is no description regarding image processing performed on a product in terms of how the color of a product would look on the consumer side, or regarding a method of confirming a chroma presented by the product under lighting in an environment in which the consumer actually uses the product that he/she is to purchase.
In addition, on-line shopping can be used to sell various products, and thus handles many different types of products. This requires distribution or broadcasting of images, as product information, of products to be sold by different dealers.
In such a case, it is complicated for a consumer to accurately select desired product information from variety of product information presented by a number of dealers. Moreover, in order to view product information under desired lighting, the consumer must correct to reproduce the color (this process is hereinafter referred to as color reproducing correction) of the image, which is product information, to accommodate to various types of lights. However, it is not easy for a general consumer to prepare a condition with lighting similar to that in an environment in which he/she actually uses the product to be purchased, in consideration of cost and equipment, and is also difficult to perform color reproducing correction on the provided image. As a result, the consumer's desire is not satisfied.